"I am delighted to announce the official lodging of the final proposal for my Outdoor Education Private Member’s Bill on the 24 January. Readers will know from my previous articles in the Crieff and Comrie Quair just how passionate I am about the aims of this Bill. Outdoor education has a proven track-record of developing life skills and building self-esteem in young people and this is needed more than ever following the Covid-19 pandemic.
"My final Bill proposal has been lodged under the text: "A proposal for a Bill to ensure that young people, in particular those in their first four years of secondary school, have the opportunity to experience residential outdoor education to an approved educational standard.”
"This also coincided with the publishing of the consultation responses to my Bill which can now be accessed here: https://www.parliament.scot/bills-and-laws/proposals-for-bills/proposed-schools-residential-outdoor-education-scotland-bill. I would like to thank all of the 535 individuals and organisations that completed the survey with over 95% of the responses supportive of the proposal.
"The final proposal now has one month to get support from other MSPs. In order to progress, the Bill must receive the support of at least 18 individual MSPs across at least two different political parties. I am glad to say this threshold has already been met comfortably and I extend my thanks to all those who have already shown their support.
"Now that my Bill has been so enthusiastically supported by both the outdoor education sector and the public, my focus will now be on ensuring that I can convince my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament to vote through this legislation to ensure no child in Scotland will be disadvantaged by missing this enriching learning experience".
